A WASHINGTON POST story (Dec. 1) reports that there are still y2k problems in Microsoft products and lots of other products. Over half of all software applications failed in recent tests.

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Naturally, this is all of big concern to the world's biggest software company, Microsoft Corp. On its Web site, it has posted quite a bit of information on how its own products stack up

www.microsoft.com/cio/articles/ related_y2k_links.htm

. . . . At its Web site, Microsoft refers to its products as "Year 2000-ready," by which it appears to mean that with some care on your part you can sail into the next century problem-free. . . .

But be careful: Suppose you're importing text that has two-digit years into another Microsoft program, Access 97. It will assume, Microsoft says, that the two digits mean years in this century. So, Microsoft recommends that "legacy" data be converted to four-digit years so there is no confusion. That can be a huge job in a database into which clerks have been typing dates for years.

There's enough uncertainty that Microsoft declines to warrant that its software will work flawlessly in the next century. "A single technology provider, even one as well prepared for the year 2000 as Microsoft is, cannot solve all issues related to the transition," the company says on its Web site. Microsoft says it might be blamed for Year 2000 problems caused by other companies' hardware or software.